Jefferson Lab, a nuclear physics research lab, broke ground on a 30,000 sq ft (2,787 sqm) data center last Friday.
The Jefferson Lab Data Center will be built on the laboratory’s campus in Newport News, Virginia, and it will be used to power the Department of Energy’s (DoE) High Performance Data Facility (HPDF), a data management infrastructure project that was awarded to Jefferson Lab by the DoE back in October 2023.
The data center will contain a 10,000 sq ft (929 sqm) data hall, with another 10,000 sq ft for infrastructure equipment.
It will serve as “foundational infrastructure” for Genesis Mission, a DOE-led effort to “advance priorities in AI for science and energy.”
The facility was funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia, which committed $43.3 million to the project, and $6m in seed funding.
Details about the facility’s construction timeline were not provided.
Newport News is located in the Hampton Roads region in eastern Virginia.